In 1852, not long after Napoléon III became Emperor of France, he made a proposal of marriage to Adelheid's parents after he had been rebuffed by Princess Carola of Sweden. Although he had never met her, the political advantages of the marriage for the Emperor were obvious, it would provide dynastic respectability for the Bonaparte line, and could promote a closer alliance between France and Britain, because Adelheid was Queen Victoria's niece. At the same time, she was not officially a member of the British royal family, so the risk of refusal was small. Adelheid could be expected to be grateful enough for her good fortune to convert to Roman Catholicism.

As it turned out, the proposal horrified Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, who preferred not to confer such hasty legitimacy upon France's latest "revolutionary" regime — the durability of which was deemed dubious — nor to yield up a young kinswoman for the purpose; the British court maintained a strict silence toward the Hohenlohes during the marriage negotiations, lest the Queen seem either eager for or repulsed by the prospect of Napoléon as a nephew-in-law.

The parents, accurately interpreting the British silence as disapproval, declined the French offer—to their sixteen-year-old daughter's dismay; this may have been only a maneuver by the Hohenlohes to obtain concessions from the French to secure their daughter's future interests. But before his ministers could press his case with further inducements, Napoléon gave up pursuit of a royal consort. Instead he offered marriage to Eugénie de Montijo, Countess of Teba, whom he had been simultaneously soliciting to become his mistress, and who had refused his advances.[1]

With her husband, the Duchess first resided at Dolzig, in Nieder Lausitz, but in 1863 moved to Kiel when Duke Frederick became legitimate heir to the duchies of Schleswig-Holstein, they returned to Dolzig only three years later, when after the Austrian-Prussian War the duchies were annexed by Prussia. In the following years the couple alternated between Dolzig, Gotha, and the family domains at Primkenau. Duke Frederick died in 1880, shortly before the couple's eldest daughter was engaged to the Prussian heir. After the marriage in February 1881, Duchess Adelheid settled in Dresden, where she lived a retired life, interesting herself chiefly in painting and music.[3]

Karoline died on 20 February 1932, aged 72, at their castle. A few years she had suffered an attack of heart disease and never recovered, her husband was the only family member present on her deathbed. 25 January 1860 – 19 March 1885: Her Serene Highness Princess Karoline Mathilde of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg 19 March 1885 – 27 November 1885: Her Highness The Hereditary Princess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg 27 November 1885 – 27 April 1931: Her Highness The Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg 27 April 1931 – 20 February 1932: Her Highness The Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein

After the might of Prussia was revealed it was considered as a major power among the German states. Throughout the next hundred years Prussia went on to win many battles, many wars; because of its power, Prussia continuously tried to unify all the German states under its rule, although whether Austria would be included in such a unified German domain was an ongoing question. After the Napoleonic Wars led to the creation of the German Confederation, the issue of more unifying the many German states caused revolution throughout the German states, with each wanting their own constitution. Attempts at creation of a federation remained unsuccessful and the German Confederation collapsed in 1866 when war ensued between its two most powerful member states and Austria; the North German Confederation, which lasted from 1867 to 1871, created a closer union between the Prussian-aligned states while Austria and most of Southern Germany remained independent. The North German Confederation was seen as more of an alliance of military strength in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War but many of its laws were used in the German Empire.

The German Empire lasted from 1871 to 1918 with the successful unification of all the German states under Prussian hegemony, this was due to the defeat of Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. The war united all the German states against a common enemy, with the victory came an overwhelming wave of nationalism which changed the opinions of some of those, against unification. In 1871, Germany unified into a single country, minus Austria and Switzerland, with Prussia the dominant power. Prussia is considered the legal predecessor of the unified German Reich and as such a direct ancestor of today's Federal Republic of Germany; the formal abolition of Prussia, carried out on 25 February 1947 by the fiat of the Allied Control Council referred to an alleged tradition of the kingdom as a bearer of militarism and reaction, made way for the current setup of the German states. However, the Free State of Prussia, which followed the abolition of the Kingdom of Prussia in the aftermath of World War I, was a major democratic force in Weimar Germany until the nationalist coup of 1932 known as the Preußenschlag.

The Kingdom left a significant cultural legacy, today notably promoted by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which has become one of the largest cultural organisations in the world. In 1415 a Hohenzollern Burgrave came from the south to the March of Brandenburg and took control of the area as elector. In 1417 the Hohenzollern was made an elector of the Holy Roman Empire. After the Polish wars, the newly established Baltic towns of the German states, including Prussia, suffered many economic setbacks. Many of the Prussian towns could not afford to attend political meetings outside of Prussia; the towns were poverty stricken, with the largest town, having to borrow money from elsewhere to pay for trade. Poverty in these towns was caused by Prussia's neighbours, who had established and developed such a monopoly on trading that these new towns could not compete; these issues led to feuds, trade competition and invasions. However, the fall of these towns gave rise to the nobility, separated the east and the west, allowed the urban middle class of Brandenburg to prosper.

It was clear in 1440 how different Brandenburg was from the other German territories, as it faced two dangers that the other German territories did not, partition from within and the threat of invasion by its neighbours. It prevented partition by enacting the Dispositio Achillea, which instilled the principle of primogeniture to both the Brandenburg and Franconian territories; the second issue was resolved through expansion. Brandenburg was surrounded on every side by neighbours whose boundaries were political. Any neighbour could consume Brandenburg at any moment; the only way to defend herself was to absorb her neighbours. Through negotiations and marriages Brandenburg but expanded her borders, absorbing neighbours and eliminating the threat of attack; the Hohenzollerns were made rulers of the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1518. In 1529 the Hohenzollerns secured the reversion of the Duchy of Pomerania after a series of conflicts, acquired its eastern part following the Peace of Westphalia. In 1618 the Hohenzollerns inherited the Duchy of Prussia, since 1511 ruled by Hohenzollern Albrecht of Brandenburg Prussia, who in 1525 converted the Teutonic Order ruled state to a Protestant Duchy by accepting fiefdom of the crown of Poland.

In the Middle Ages this area had dense forests, so it represented a major obstacle to civilian and military traffic. Some of the region's villages were damaged or destroyed by the open-pit lignite mining industry during the DDR era. Some, now exhausted, former open-pit mines are now being converted into artificial lakes, with the hope of attracting holiday-makers, the area is now being referred to as the Lusatian Lake District; the Lusatian Lake District will become Europe's largest artificial lake district. Some of the biggest lakes are Bluno Southern Lake; the Upper Lusatian Heath and Pond Landscape is the region richest in ponds in Germany, together with the Lower Lusatian Pond Landscape forms the biggest pond landscape in Central Europe. As Lusatia is not, never has been, a single administrative unit and Lower Lusatia have different, but in some respects similar, histories; the city of Cottbus is the largest in the region, though it is recognized as the cultural capital of Lower Lusatia, it was a Brandenburgexclave since 1445.

The administrative centres of Lower Lusatia were at Luckau and Lübben, while the historical capital of Upper Lusatia is Bautzen. Since 1945, when a small part of Lusatia east of the Oder–Neisse line was incorporated into Poland, Żary, has been touted as the capital of Polish Lusatia. According to the earliest records, the area was settled by culturally Celtic tribes. Around 100 BC, the GermanicSemnones settled in that area; the name of the region may be derived from that of the Ligians. From around 600 onwards, West Slavic tribes known as the Milceni and Lusici settled permanently in the region. In the 10th century, the region came under the influence of the Kingdom of Germany, starting with the 928 eastern campaigns of King Henry the Fowler; until 963 the Lusatian tribes were subdued by the Saxon margrave Gero and upon his death two years the March of Lusatia was established on the territory of today's Lower Lusatia and

In that period Gotha became an industrial centre, with companies such as the Gothaer Waggonfabrik, a producer of trams and aeroplanes. The main sights of Gotha are the early-modern Friedenstein Castle, one of the largest Renaissance/Baroque castles in Germany, the medieval city centre and the Gründerzeit buildings of 19th-century commercial boom. Gotha lies in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin in a agricultural landscape. Gotha has existed at least since the 8th century, when it was mentioned in a document signed by Charlemagne as Villa Gotaha in 775; the first settlement was located around today's Hersdorfplatz outside the north-eastern edge of the city centre. During the 11th century, the nearby Ludowingians received the village and established the city in the late 12th century, as Gotha became their second most important city after Eisenach; the city generated wealth because it was conveniently located at the junction of two important long-distance trade routes: the Via Regia from Mainz and Frankfurt to Leipzig and Breslau and a north-south route from Mühlhausen over the Thuringian Forest to Franconia.

One of the oldest pieces of evidence of busy trade in the city is the "Gotha cache of coins" with nearly 800 Bracteates, buried in 1185 in the central city. In 1180, Gotha was first mentioned as a city, when the area between Brühl and Jüdenstraße became the core of urban development, highlighting the early presence of Jews in this old trading town; the parish church of this first urban settlement was St. Mary's Church at Schlossberg; the castle was first mentioned in 1217. As the Ludowingians died out in 1247, Gotha became part of the Wettins' territories, where it remained until 1918; the new town east of Querstraße was established in the early 15th century. The monastery was founded before 1251 and abandoned in 1525; until 1665, the bourse of Gotha was located in the centre of Hauptmarkt square inside the Renaissance building, which hosts the town hall today. The medieval town hall was located on the north-eastern edge of Hauptmarkt, at the site of today's Innungshalle. Water supply was a big problem.

In 1369, Landgrave Balthasar had the Leinakanal built. This channel, over 25 kilometres long, brought fresh water from the Thuringian Forest to the city; the main businesses of medieval Gotha were the woad trade. The Reformation was introduced in Gotha in 1524 and the castle was rebuilt as a larger fortress between 1530 and 1541. Gotha was part of the Ernestine Wettins territory after the 1485 Treaty of Leipzig. However, the Ernestines' loss of power after the Schmalkaldic War in 1547, the Treaty of Erfurt in 1572, when the city became part of Saxe-Coburg, the Thirty Years' War resulted in Gotha's decline; the local castle, was razed by Imperial troops in 1572. The turnaround was brought about by the selection of Gotha as a ducal residence in the 1640 territorial partition, when Ernest the Pious founded the duchy of Saxe-Gotha; the Protestant and absolutist sovereign began to reorganize his small state and in particular fostered the school system, for example by introducing compulsory education up to the age of 12 in 1642.

This was the origin of the noted liberal education of the Gotha citizenry and the following cultural heyday. Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff was one of numerous experienced and loyal civil servants employed by the duke. Seckendorff was considered one of the most able and influential thinkers on administration and public law of his time, his book Der teutsche Fürstenstaat, written by order of Ernest, served for decades as a standard work in teaching political science at Protestant universities in Germany. Friedenstein Castle was built between 1643 and 1654 and is one of the first large Baroque residence castles in Germany. Between 1657 and 1676, the city received a stronger fortification, demolished between 1772 and 1811. In their place, a park around Friedenstein and a boulevard around the city were established; some important scientific institutions were the ducal library, founded in 1650, the "coin cabinet", the "art and natural collection", basis of today's museums, the Gotha Observatory at Seeberg mountain, established 1788.

The Gotha porcelain manufactory was famous around 1800 for their faiences. In 177

Their marriage was childless. Her closest heirs were: in paternal side, Frederick II, Grand Duke of Baden, son of her first cousin, she had a good relationship to her parents-in-law and was described as their support during difficult times. As a crown princess, Carola began the activity within social issues which she would continue as a queen. In 1866, she visited Saxony's field hospitals in Vienna, where she made herself known as a good samaritan. In 1867, she founded the Albert commission, which contributed to the medical care of the German army during the war of 1870-71. For her work, she was decorated with the SaxonOrder of Sidonia. In 1871, she accompanied Albert to Compiègne after the defeat of France, where she entertained the officers of the victorious armies as a popular hostess. In 1873, her spouse succeeded his father as King Albert I. In 1884, the deposed Vasa dynasty made peace with the new Swedish Bernadotte dynasty through her, when the remains of her grandfather, king Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden, her father and her brother Ludvig were taken to Stockholm and interred in the royal crypt.

In 1888, Carola and her spouse made an official visit to Sweden. Queen Carola made an important contribution to the health care organisation in Saxony. In 1867, as Crown princess and Marie Simon founded the Albert-Verein, she founded a wet nurse school at Leipziger Tor, the hospital "Carola-Haus", the women employment agency Johannes-Verein, a women's school in Schwarzenberg, the home "Gustavheim" for the old and weak in Niederpoyritz, the school Lehrertöchterheim Carola-Stift Klotzsche and the home for handicapped Amalie hus Löbtau, Friedrichstadt. Carola was a popular queen, she was widowed in 1902. She was the 499th Dame of the Royal Order of Queen Maria Luisa. At the time of her death, she was the last surviving grandchild of Gustaf IV Adolf. Idun number 28, Friday 13 July 1888 Schimpff, George von. Aus dem Leben der Königin Carola von Sachsen: zur fünfundzwanzigjährigen Regierungs-Jubelfeier Seiner Majestät des Königs und Ihrer Majestät der Königin. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1898. Almanach de Gotha, Gotha 1887 und 1901 Hultman, H.: Prinsen av Vasa, Stockholm 1974 Louisa of Tuscany, Ex-Crown Princess of Saxony: My Own Story, London 1911

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Portrait of Wilhelm II in 1902, by T. H. Voigt

Wilhelm with his father, in Highland dress, in 1862

Prince Wilhelm posing for a photo taken around 1887. His right hand is holding his left hand, which was affected by Erb's palsy.

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